Railway safety devices



ea, 22, W59 J. M. COCHRAN 2,918,236

RAILWAY SAFETY DEVICES Filed April 8, 1957 PIC-5.2 F|G.3 FlG.4 FIGS i 5%) g: a2

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20 I {U l4 [i INVENTOR JOHN M. COCHRAN United States Patent RAHJWAY SAFETY DEVICES John M. Cochran, Indian Orchard, Mass.

Application April 8, 1957, Serial No. 651,543

1 Claim. (Cl. 246-477) The present invention relates to safety devices and more particularly to safety devices for railway cars which are being repaired in a yard or on sidings.

The object of the invention is to prevent inadvertent movement of railway cars being repaired and at the same time give warning that workmen could likely be injured 0 if the car were forceably moved or hit.

A second object of the invention is to provide means for proving that such a warning device had been used and was in position in the event a car is hit or moved, as

by being bumped by another car in motion and the signal device demolished.

The above and other related objects and the various novel features of the invention will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description of the disclosure found in the accompanying drawing and the particular novelty thereof pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation showing my safety device in use;

Fig. 2 is a partial section taken on the line II-II in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a partial section taken on the line IIIIII in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a view taken on the line IVIV on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged elevation of the standard seen in Fig. 4; and Fig. 6 is a side elevation on an enlarged scale of one end of the device seen in Fig. 1 and showing a modification therein.

The device seen in Fig. 1 comprises a wedge shaped chock 10 having flanges 12 which center the chock on a railway rail R when in use (see Fig. 3). A link 14 is pivotally connected to the upper end of the chock and toward the outer end of the link are mounted rail gripping bars 16 (Fig. 2). The bars are pivotally mounted on pins 18 intermediate their ends, said pins being carried by or formed integrally with the link 14. A compression spring 20 extends between the upper ends of the bars 16 and is positioned thereat by a rod 22 which is slidable in one or both of the bars 16. The lower ends of the bars 16 are tapered as at 24 so that when the link 14 is lowered the beveled edges spread the gripping bars 16 apart against the action of the spring 20. This positions the safety device on a rail with the chock 10 preventing movement of the wheel W of a railway car C and thus the car itself. It will be apparent that the same gripping action would be obtained if only one of 6 the bars 16 were pivotal.

The gripping action of the bars 16 is intended only to position the safety device on the rail and is not of such magnitude as to prevent movement of the railway car. This latter end is obtained by the wedge shape of the chock and a relieved gripping surface if desired on its bottom face. In the drawings such relieving is provided by holes 26 (Fig. 3) although it is to be understood that the same effect could be obtained by scoring the surface with hard electric weld spots or checkering or slotting the bottom face. The angle of the wedge is such that if the railway car moves, the chock will not slide due to the friction provided by the relieved surface just described.

The outer end of the line 14 is provided with a handle or hand grip 28 which facilitates positioning of the chock 1t beneath the wheel of a railway car which is generally spaced some distance inwardly of the end of the car (see Fig. l). Inwardly of the handle 28 there is carried a vertical post 30 on which is pivotally mounted a standard 32. The post 30 is provided with a slot 34 (Fig. 4) which is open at its upper end and is spanned by a pivot pin 36. The standard 32 is provided with a closed end slot 38 (Fig. 5) at its lower end which slot receives the pivot pin 36 permitting the standard 32 to be lowered to the phantom position indicated in Fig. 1 when the safety device is not in use. However, when the safety device is used the standard 32 is swung to its vertical position and its lower end enters the slot 34 to maintain an upright position. In this manner indicating means taking the form of a transverse plate or flag 40 will be clearly visible to indicate that the railway car with which the safety device is associated is being serviced in some manner and should not be bumped.

The device above described is particularly of advantage where a railway car is being repaired or serviced. Generally the car would be in a railway yard and a chock device would be placed under both front and rear wheels to prevent inadvertent rolling movement of the car in either direction. Thus workmen may go beneath the car for repairs without danger of injury from rolling. A greater source of possible injury and damage to workmen in and around the area is the careless or inadvertent bumping by another moving car. The standard 32 will, therefore, be in the raised position so that the flag 46 is clearly visible to serve as a warning to anyone operating a locomotive or moving car along the track on which the car is being repaired. Preferably the plate of the flag 40 is colored blue which is a commonly accepted indicia of a car being out of service and under repair.

If the warning signal of the raised plate 40 is ignored or otherwise not observed the safety device being light and portable is not capable of preventing movement of the car. The car wheel may ride over the chock 10 or the car derailed and the device shattered in general wreckage. After such a mishap the question arises as to whether or not a safety deviee had been properly em; p y dn. or r to p o ide p q o P oper e a ing means may be provided at the extreme guter end of link 14. Such marking means may take many forms such as ink, yellow metal or a sharpened hard steel pin 42, as seen in Fig. 1. If the safety device is overrun the steel pin will be pressed against thetop of the rail and give evidence as to the use of the safety device. This will be available though the device itself is otherwise completely destroyed. Other marking means would leave different types of evidence or markings on the rail, indicating use of the safety device.

Evidence not only that the safety device was used but showing that the standard 40 was properly raised may be obtained from the arrangement illustrated in Fig. 6 wherein it will be seen that the sharp steel pin 42 is carried by an arm 44 pivotally connected to the outer end of the link 14 at 46. The arm 44 is connected to the standard 32 by an offset L-shaped link 48, which is pivotally attached to a projection from the standard 32. Thus the marking means will only be positioned to mark 0 the rail, in case of being overrun, when the standard 32 if the marking means were carried directly by the standard 32, however, the compactness of parts in nested position leads to a preference for the form illustrated. Further, the -L-shaped link 48 provides ready access to the handle 28.

Having described 'my invention what I claim as novel and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A railway safety device comprising a wedge shaped chock adapted to be wedged between the wheel of a railway car and a rail, an elongated link pivotally connected at its inner end to said chock and adapted to overlie the rail outwardly of the wheel, means mounted on said link adjacent its outer end for yieldingly gripping opposite sides of the rail and positioning the link relative thereto when the chock is wedged beneath the wheel, a standard having a colored plate at its outer end and pivotally mounted at its inner end on said link adjacent the outer end thereof, said standard being swingable from an upright position to a nested position in which it is overlying and generally parallel to said link, marking means pivotally mounted on the extreme outer end of said link for marking said rail with a permanently visible indicia in the event said marking means are overrun by a railway car, said marking means being pivotable between one position in which it will be operative to mark the rail and an inoperative position, a second link interconnecting said standard and said marking means and positioning said marking means in its operative position when the standard is in its upright position and positioning the marking means in its inoperative position when the standard is in its nested position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS i269,955 Paullin Jan. 2, 1883 1,106,155 Newkirk Aug. 4, 1914 1,130,433 Richter Mar. 2, 1915 1,142,807 Ferguson June 15, 1915 1,388,283 Metzler Aug. 23, 19,21 

